This is not a database of police misconduct. A high number of uses of force does not necessarily indicate wrongdoing. The material in this database was reported by individual officers on their department’s specified form and provided to NJ Advance Media under the state Open Public Records Act. We cannot independently verify every detail, and because forms are completed by officers, they might be inaccurate, incomplete, illegible or missing altogether. Every effort has been made to clean and standardize the data without introducing errors. If you see a problem, please email forcereport@njadvancemedia.com.
Atlantic City
Atlantic County
Patrol area: Atlantic City
Average number of full-time officers: 320
This police department's use-of-force forms had spots for multiple officers on each form, as opposed to the vast majority of other departments, which require all officers involved to fill out separate forms. To make an accurate one-to-one comparison statewide, we broke up each form to create a separate log of each officer's uses of force. All duplicates were removed.
FROM 2012 TO 2016
2,854
Total uses of force
110.7
Incidents per 1,000 arrests
How did we calculate these two numbers?
Total uses of force includes any time an officer used force during an arrest and filled out a use-of-force form, as required. Because multiple officers might use force during a single arrest, or incident, the rate of force was calculated using the overall number of incidents.
This department uses force at
higher rate than
466
police departments
OFFICERS INVOLVED
332
Officers in this department used force over five years
8.6
Average incidents per officer who used force over five years
4.1
Statewide average incidents per officer over five years
This database includes five years of force reports, but some officers may not have been employed by a department the entire time. So it's possible they could account for a large amount of the force during their time but not appear among the top officers. Only officers who filled out a use-of-force form will be included in this database.
Officers’ names that were illegible or blank on the form do not appear above. But those forms are included in the full listing of incidents at the bottom of this page.
Police departments don’t report part-time or seasonal police officers to the state, so in some towns the total number of officers who used force may be higher than the average number of full-time officers.
Flagging officers for review
Many major U.S. cities track use-of-force trends as part of systems that flag potentially problematic officers for review. But in New Jersey, that's not required, which experts said is unusual. Here's how many officers in this department would have been flagged at least once for review from 2012 to 2016 under other systems across the country:
Each = 1 officer
Under Los Angeles' system, 90 officers in this department would have been flagged for review.
Under New York City's system, 216 officers in this department would have been flagged for review.
Under Chicago's system, 220 officers in this department would have been flagged for review.
How did we calculate these numbers?
In New York City, officers are flagged for review if they use higher levels of force — including a baton, Taser or firearm, but not pepper spray — or if anyone was injured or hospitalized. We calculated this number by identifying every officer who met one or more of the criteria.
In Los Angeles, officers are compared with one another based on 14 variables, including use of force. If an officer ranks significantly higher than peers for any of the variables — technically, 3 standards of deviation from the norm — supervisors are automatically notified. We calculated this number conservatively by using only use of force as a variable over the course of a calendar year.
In Chicago, officers are flagged for review if force results in an injury or hospitalization, or if the officer uses any level of force above punches or kicks. We calculated this number by identifying every officer who met one or more of the criteria.
RACE & ETHNICITY
Based on population, a black person in Atlantic City is ...
35%
less likely
to have force used on them than a white person.
Based on arrests,
a black person in
Atlantic City is ...
3%
more likely
to have force used on them than a white person.
How did we calculate these percentages?
NJ Advance Media used an adjusted population, eliminating people under the age of 10 and over 65, to calculate the percentage above. The adjusted population uses an age range most likely to face police force, according to the use-of-force data in which 95 percent of force subjects fall in that range.
Using FBI arrest data, which is self-reported by local police, we calculated the likelihood of police using force on a black person and white person and then found the difference between the two numbers.
Race and ethnicity breakdown
White
Black
Hispanic
Asian
About this data
The demographic data comes from the use-of-force forms collected by NJ Advance Media, arrest records reported to the FBI and the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (2012-2016). If the use-of-force total is low, the small sample size can skew the percentages very high or very low, even though they are technically accurate.
NJ Advance Media used an adjusted population, eliminating people under the age of 10 and over 65, to calculate the percentage above. The adjusted population uses an age range most likely to face police force. About 95 percent of force subjects fall in that range.
Why might Hispanic people be underrepresented?
There is no standard way for New Jersey police officers to identify Hispanic people when reporting uses of force, which means the “subjects of force” category may be artificially low. In addition, arrest statistics submitted by New Jersey to the FBI do not include Hispanic data, which is why that category is marked as not available.
Subjects of force vs. officers using force
While a majority of the forms collected were filled out completely, some either do not list race or were left blank, which may cause some numbers to not add up to 100 percent.
Subjects
Officers
About this data
This demographic data comes from the use-of-force forms collected by NJ Advance Media. Not every form included the race of the subject and the officer, so the totals may be less than 100.
TYPES OF FORCE
Officers reported seven general categories of force, listed below in order from least to most dangerous. Not all forms included the same options for type of force, so they have been standardized as best as possible. Tasers and K-9s were not included because so few departments reported using them. Officers often use more than one type of force during an arrest, so percentages may add up to more than 100.
Compliance Hold
Total: 2,345 of 2,854
How often it was used
A compliance hold is a painful maneuver using pressure points to gain control over a suspect. It is the lowest level of force and the most commonly used. But it is often used in conjunction with other types of force.
Takedown
Total: 177
How often it was used
This technique is used to bring a suspect to the ground and eventually onto their stomach to cuff them. It can be a leg sweep or a tackle.
Hands/Fist
Total: 1,172
How often it was used
Open hands or closed fist strikes/punches.
Leg Strikes
Total: 358
How often it was used
Leg strikes are any kick or knee used on a subject.
Baton strikes
Total: 98
How often it was used
Officers are trained to use a baton when punches or kicks are unsuccessful.
Pepper spray
Total: 50
How often it was used
Police pepper spray, a mist derived from the resin of cayenne pepper, is considered “mechanical force” under state guidelines.
Fired a weapon
Total: 14
How often it was used
The firing of an officer's service weapon, regardless of whether a subject was hit. “Warning shots” are prohibited, and officers are instructed not to shoot just to maim or subdue a suspect.
REASONS FOR FORCE
Officers are required to report the reasons they use force on a subject. They may list more than one reason for using force. As a result, the percentages may add up to more than 100.
Resisting Arrest
Total: 2,541
How often it was reported
Resisting arrest can be defined as any noncompliance with police. For example, not listening to commands, refusing to be cuffed or grabbing on to something such as a pole. This is the lowest level of resistance.
Threaten or attack police
Total: 1,291
How often it was reported
Threaten or attack police with a knife
Total: 18
How often it was reported
Threaten officer or another with a gun
Total: 18
How often it was reported
Threaten or attack with car
Total: 10
How often it was reported
Fire gun at police or another
Total: 7
How often it was reported
Who was injured?
Subjects
18.4% of subjects were injured.
Statewide, 21.3% of subjects were injured.
Officers
3.9% of officers were injured.
Statewide, 9.3% of officers were injured.
About this data
This data comes from the use-of-force forms filled out by police officers.
ALL REPORTS
The description of the incidents below was created through more than 40 data points on each use-of-force form. If an officer was not involved in a use-of-force incident from 2012-2016, their names are not included in the database. Some forms did not include officer names, or the names were partially or fully illegible. They are marked as such in the database below.
More about this data
We are not providing images of the 70,607 hard-copy forms to protect the privacy of subjects. Many forms contain personal information, including that of juveniles. Because the forms are not standardized across departments, in some cases the paperwork did not include the data points we were collecting. In other cases, those parts of the forms were illegible or left blank. These points will appear in the database as N/A or “blank.”
